Frozen History
by The Age of Awesomeness
Summary: They take a step closer, and I lower my barb closer to my eggs, they take another step, and I lower it so it's almost touching my eggs, less than a talons width from them. They take quite a few steps back, and I raise my barb away from my eggs, resting it over my heart. They panic even more, scrambling to the entranceofthecave. I give a toothy grin, then stab my barb into my heart.
1. Chapter 1

**Yeah, it's amazing, two new stories. Yay! Anyways, I hope you enjoy.**

Dragging my talons, I walk farther into Mother's cave. Then I get a whiff of human. They shouldn't be this far in, unless they're dead. I freeze, petrified, now expecting humans. I turn around, scrambling to get out of the cave, but they're already there. Their little swords swing at me, shining. They jump on me, their swords poking between my scales, and pricking my hide. Then the freezing comes.

"Hey, Dave! Come here! Look at what I found! And imagine, it looks perfectly preserved!" A human yells. It mustn't be here to kill me. It isn't trying to conceal itself.

"Holy crap! Yeah, it does look preserved perfectly! And look, the scene is perfect!" Another human yells.

"Hey! You there! Get over here and set up the rigs! We're going down!" The first human yells. The human walks over and the sound of swords comes. They must be coming to kill me, I decide. I have to warn mother. I try to move my claws, but they won't move. But they have to. I'm not dead. The humans suddenly are here, staring into my eyes.

"See, this is perfect! Let's begin with getting rid of this ice. Then we can take it to the surface!"

Days later, the humans are still here. They are slowly melting the cold around me.

The humans and their rotting swords, the ones that attacked me, are slowly being pulled off of my body. The air now hits my back, and I can feel again. My tail is free, but I don't dare move it. I want them to think I'm dead until I can get to mother.

Slowly, over the days, they've taken the cold away. All that's left now is my head. It's hard, not moving when I could. The waiting is going to kill me faster than the humans swords.

"Dave, c'mon! This is the last bit of ice! Come watch it, and that way we'll be the first scientists to find out what this thing is!" The human yells. The sound of pebbles falling moves towards me as the humans walk up to my head. They stare into my eyes, again, and I can't resist the urge to blink. I blink, it being the one movement I could complete when in the cold, and the humans freak out.

"IT'S ALIVE!" One yells. Well, now that they know, I allow my tail to move, and stretch my unused muscles. Then I bang my head into the wall, and the cold shatters. I turn tail and run down the cave, heading towards where I last saw mother. The deeper I get into the cave, the warmer it becomes. Still, it's cold enough for the cold to stick to the walls. I finally make it to where mothers nest is, and I finally see her back, herself curled around something. I slowly walk up behind her, finding that she isn't covered with the cold. I nudge her horns, but she doesn't respond. Mothers head lolls to the side, her body limp. I walk in front of her, and I see many eggs, radiating heat. Most of the cave is filled with eggs, which means mother mustn't have known about the cold, and she must've just kept laying eggs until she died.

The eggs, scattered in groups, keep the cave warm. I slowly pace around the cave, nudging them all towards mother, and nestling them in her belly. The eggs are boiling to the touch, and once they are all together, I pull mother away, and leave her body at the edge of the cave. I then lay down where she lay as she died, curled around the eggs.

"Dave? Do you want to go after it?" He asks.

"Why not? It seemed scared. We may as well." He replies. They gather a video camera, and two backpacks filled with supplies. Then they set off, ignoring the calls of the people at the top of the cave.

Pebbles tumble into the cave, and I hear humans walk into the cave. I slowly move away from the eggs, careful not to disturb them, and taking the basic defence mother taught me. The humans, holding a black box that makes a whirring noise, walk in, gaping at everything around them. Beads of liquid run down their faces, and they soon shed their layers of furs. They turn in circles, the box whirring more. My muscles, still stiff, don't move as smoothly as I would like, but it's still enough to fight.

"Dave? Has this thing laid all of these?" One human asks.

"Well, you know what, Steve? I sure as hell hope not. But can't you feel the heat? It's gotta be 50 degrees Celsius in here, at least!" The other replies. They both look around for a bit longer.

"Maybe that one laid them?" One questions, pointing at mother. They look at each other.

"Who knows, that one might just be the father. Besides, look at how emaciated it is. There's no way that thing could've laid that many, unless it ate the eggs." The other comments.

I growl. Mother never would've eaten her eggs. She told me the only eggs she would eat, of her own, were the duds. Obviously, she laid very few in her clutches, except for mine. My egg was the only one that wasn't a dud egg, and she laid abnormally large clutches, from 6 to 7, when the normal is 1 to 2 eggs. Still, it took a lot out of her to lay a clutch, and laying 2 clutches without duds should've done her in, unless prey wandered in. But now that she is dead, I will have to raise my siblings, and I won't let these humans take that away from me. I stand taller, ready to kill the humans.

Growling, I face them, and they back away quite quickly, falling on their bottoms. I dig my talons into the stone, leaving gouges. I feel the heat behind me raise sharply, then drop. The cold slowly begins to creep into the cave, and the humans leave my mind. I immediately begins to breathe faster, hoping my fire will finally appear. It does, and I spew fire on the walls, stopping the cold from getting in, and keeping my siblings warm enough to hatch. They finally registered a living female dragon, and now it's taking affect. All of the eggs have lain in wait for hundreds of years, and they are all eager to hatch. The eggs begin to shatter, and the hatchlings begin to scatter over the cave, tearing the shells of their clutch-mates open to help them hatch. I continue to breathe fire, trapping the humans in here. Their black box is whirring more than ever, and they stare on.

Sometime later, the heat has reacher the same point it was earlier, and I stop breathing on the walls of the cave. Somehow, the two humans haven't been noticed yet, not until they decide to try to climb out. The pebbles that fall alert the hatchlings to their presence, and they instantly begin to clamber over one another to get to them. I growl, stopping everyone in their tracks. The hatchlings all notice me then, and begin to climb on me. Mother still had a bit of meat on her bones, and she would gladly have told them to eat her body after she died, to help them live, so I point my tail at her body and they fall all over it, tearing it apart. I stalk up to the humans, picking them up by their furs, and walking up the cave.

When I reach the entrance to the cave, I unfurl my wings and fiercely beat the air, rising enough to toss the two humans towards their huts.

Then I roar. The mountains sing in harmony, and the forgotten species turned myth carry it through the land. The mountain which our cave was under trembles, remembering me learning my song. I sing my song, sending it across the land, summoning for a mate. The land rumbles in tune with my song, and then it stops suddenly. The land rumbles, at least ten times stronger than my own. That probably means that there are many mateless male dragons that have survived. I send my song out once more, and then I drop back into my cave. As soon as my talons touch the stone, my hatchlings- I may as well refer to them as that- climb all over me, wrestling with each other for my attention.

I get them back into the cave, and growl for them to sleep. They huddle in a pile, sleeping near immediately, and I climb out of the cave to stand at the edge of my cave, waiting for the males to fight their way here.

Days later, the humans still linger, and the first male shows up. Instead of choosing the first male who shows up, I tell him he has to win me by impressing me with his hunting skills and other such things, but he cannot touch the humans nearby. Every male that arrives gets the same message, and soon, something near 15 males are fighting to woo me. The humans constantly recorded when the males appeared, and what they were doing. I end up with a steady stream of prey, and it keeps my hatchlings satisfied. I counted them while they were sleeping, and got a count of about 50 hatchlings. Mother laid a minimum of 7 clutches before fading from this world.

Well, it was bound that two of the males would run into one another eventually. One was giving me prey when another arrived. They began to fight, and my hatchlings began to gather at the entrance for the food, and they were noticed instantly. Instead of fighting one another, they turned on me, and began to claw at me for hiding hatchlings. I fought back, while breathlessly explaining that they weren't mine, but from my mothers last clutches.

"They're my siblings," I say, scratching under their scales, and making blood run between their scales. "My mother trusted me to care for them. Otherwise she wouldn't have left over 50 eggs behind, and in a cave that was frozen shut!" I cry, snarling at them.

The males snarl and snap their teeth at me, but leave, and continue to try to woo me. It would seem that barely any females survived the sudden cold, either starved or crushed under the cold. My resolution, made right then, is to find any other living dragons, male or female or eggs, and save them.

Somehow, many more males heard my song. Not just nearby ones, but far away. I was right that few females remain. Although the males are now aware that I harbour hatchlings, they still court me. The humans nearby still haven't left, and have set black boxes whirring around the cave. No matter how many times they are destroyed, they still appear, fixed, where the other one was.

They press me to make my choice, and I have thought. There are 4 strong, bulky males, 3 flashy coloured males, 5 excellent hunters, of the remaining 16, only 3 are decently balanced with all three attributes. I slowly send the thirteen who don't pass off, but I still find them lurking around my cave, watching my sisters. I've chased them all off, leaving them with scratches and torn out scales to remind them not to come back.

Now they've begun to pick up their game. The hunters hunt more, the strong build up the caves defence and hollow out more room in the cave, the flashy colours strut, showing off. The three who are balanced don't strut, but they do whatever they can to win me over. I send the flashy coloured away, and pick off the weaker of the strong and the slower hunters, leaving 2 strong, 3 hunters, and 2 of the balanced dragons. Then, I suddenly have the hunters doing what the strong were, and the strong hunting. The hunters fail, and so do the strong ones; but the ones that succeed are the 2 balanced. I reject the 5 specializing dragons, leaving two to fight for my affection.

I set them both to hunting, then not leaving my cave again. I send some some of my male hatchlings to climb the cave entrance and gather the food, and to drag it back. About a week after I refuse to leave my cave, one of the males begins to venture into the cave. He leaves his kills closer and closer to the main cave, but not coming any closer than 5 metres to he main cavern. The other male, however, doesn't bother to slowly approach.

One day, he suddenly bursts into the cave, and I feign being unable to move. He approaches some of my female hatchlings, herding 4 of them away, ignoring me. Once he can no longer see me, I begin to follow him, quiet as can be. He takes no notice of me, and forces them to climb out of the cave, pushing them up roughly. When I figure out what he is doing, I spring from the shadows and bite hard at the base of his tail. My hatchlings scramble back down the cave entrance, heading back to the main cave. I scratch his snout, aiming for his eyes. I catch one, and he screams in pain.

It draws the attention of my other suitor, and he comes rushing back, while I turn tail and run back to the main cave, more concerned about the hatchlings than my attacking suitor. I hear the challenging roar of my other suitor, clashed with the other male. As I race back down to the cave, I hear blood spatter the cave floor. As I reach the main cave, I use my tail to send a giant amount of rubble crashing across the way to the cave, making it near impossible to get through without making noise. Soon, I come across my four females he was going to take, and I hurry them down the cave, knocking the piles of rubble over at the periodic placements.

"Hurry. Hurry." I whisper over and over. Once all of my hatchlings are in the cave, I ram my shoulder and wing into a boulder that lays right beside the tunnel entrance. Over and over, I ram into it, pushing it across the entrance, sealing the hatchlings and I in. I make it a couple steps from the boulder before I collapse. My stomach muscles cramp, but I shakily stand. I tell the hatchlings to go to sleep, and tell them it's just a fight between males, so it will be dangerous to leave, and that we should just sleep it off.

As soon as the hatchlings have fallen asleep, I pull myself close to the edge of the cave, gritting my teeth as cramps run through my stomach. I refuse to cry out, letting the spasms run. They stop for a second, then doubling, over and over, about eight times. Then the cramps stop, and I am able to stand without shaking. I turn around, and, covered in blood and fluids, lay nine eggs. After the shock of laying a bigger clutch than mother fades, I instinctively know that all of them are duds, and will remain so unless a male fertilizes them within a day. That's the way it is. All females lay duds unless they've mated with a male. As I push them over to the corner of the cave, one of them catches on gouges in the floor. It reads:

 _'Your name is Fiery Protector of Dragons, my daughter. I don't believe I ever told you my name. It was 'Eternal Mother of Dragons.' Name my sons and daughters well, Fiery Protector of Dragons. Name the daughters when they lay their first clutch, and name the males when they fight each other. You will know their names; they are your hatchlings now.'_

As I push the eggs over to the edge of the cave, tears run down my face, leaving dark splotches along the cave to the wall. Then I hear something banging against the boulder, and I scent both males out there. Two of my eggs have not been pushed to the edge of the cave, and I realize the smell of them will be driving them to claim them as their own. I brace myself against the boulder, keeping it in place. Using my wingtip, I wake one of my female hatchlings, and I order,

"You see those two eggs over there? Go push them to the far edge of the wall, with the others, and be quiet. The males are fighting to get in here." She gently eases her way out of the pile of hatchlings and pushes the eggs over to join the other seven. "Go back to sleep," I tell her, as I brace the boulder for the next round of hits.

Periodically, the males would leave, or they would fight, giving me a temporary reprieve from holding the boulder in place. However, I fell asleep when the period of them ramming into the boulder had stopped for more than an hour. When I woke, my gaze was drawn to my eggs, and I see both males over there, snarling at one another. My hatchlings are across the cave for where the eggs are, huddled in a frightened manner. Between the two males, lay three of my eggs. The female hatchling I sent to push the eggs earlier lies between the other six, or what remains of them. Six of my eggs have been smashed, and one of my hatchlings lies dead between them, her stomach soaked in the fluids.

I snarl, and growl, as I make my way to her. I gently nudge her out of the crushed eggs, and then I pick her up and move her to where mother's bones lay. I nestle her in the crook of her rib cage, leaving that for her final resting place. The males are close to smashing a seventh egg, and my temper bursts. My tail, tipped with a poisonous barb passed down from my father, catches the one who attempted to steal four of my hatchlings before, and he immediately begins to writhe in agony, his screams piercing. The other male backs away quickly, scuttling backwards from me and the remaining three eggs. I kick the writhing male away from my eggs, standing over my eggs, my tail poised above my head, ready to strike.

"I will crush my eggs if you come any closer. And I will poison them for good measure. I have had enough of you males fighting! Really! I lay a long overdue clutch of duds, and all you can do is fight over them! You crushed six of my eggs, and the remaining three were nearly, as well!" I scream at the remaining male. I begin to slow down my breathing, and I finally focus on my remaining eggs. The first thought that comes to mind is that they're fertilized. I slowly lay down, my tail still poised, and curl around them, warming them. It's then that I notice that the boulder has been clawed to bits, and the rubble is scattered about the cave.

"Get out. And take _him_ with you," I say, pointing my claw at the other male dragon. "And do not come back into the cave unless you plan on removing all the rubble from the boulder you crushed. Even then, you will not do anything without my permission. Now, OUT," I shout. He quickly grabs the tail of the other male dragon, pulling him out of the cave, soon disappearing down the passageway. Now I let my tail fall, curling it under my legs. My hatchlings slowly walk towards me, and I curl around my eggs. They slowly begin to pile around me, avoiding my tail, warming me, and therefore warming the eggs.

When I wake up, I see my hatchlings play fighting, well away from me. The males pretend to be fighting over 'eggs', which are a pile of pebbles, and one of the females will pretend to be me, swinging their tail at one of my male hatchlings. I watch through a half open eye as they play, still curled around my eggs. Then I begin to notice that some of my hatchlings have a curved tip of the tail, though only about half, and that they are mostly on the males, although some of the females have inherited them, but the females haven't had their turns yet. My brain doesn't full realize this until three, with barbs, begin to play fight. The female swings her tail, and I scramble to my feet, somehow not knocking my eggs over. They don't notice, but her barb is aimed to hit the eye of one, and would therefore poison him.

As I rush to get between them, her tail swings quick, and hits his eye and he collapses, spasming. I skid on the rock before I dig my talons in and stop before them. She doesn't realize what she has done, and begins to panic, just like the rest of my hatchlings. My tail poises itself beside me, and they notice me then. They stare as I plunge my barb into his eye, taking away one eye for the price of his life. Then my hatchlings begin to scream. They attack me, trying to get a hold of my tail. I pull him close, wrapping around his shivering form, nestling him in my stomach, as I did with my eggs. My hatchlings are confused, first I sting him, then I curl around him like I did with my eggs. I lift my head and I say,

"You will not play that game again. I don't want to have to watch you every second to ensure that you don't die," fury enforcing my tone. "Look at your tails. Some of you have curved tips. What do they resemble," I ask, holding up my own tail. They slowly make the realization that they have the same sort of power that I have, and begin to try to get away from their own tails, the ones that have barbs.

"None of you will play any games with your tails, ever again, understand? You could kill an ancient dragon with a scratch!" I yell. "If I catch you playing any game like that, you will be in trouble. The only reason your clutch-brother is alive is because of me. I can stop your poisons from killing other dragons, and I can stop yours if they hit me." I pause. "Your poison, however is weaker because you were laid long after father died, but it can still kill dragons! I could take down a full grown buck with a prick. Do not play games like those again!" I stand, gently picking up my hatchling who is still shivering, returning to my spot where I laid before I scrambled up, pulling him and my eggs closer to my body, warming him and my eggs, falling asleep, thinking I hear mother sing a lullaby as I fall asleep.

I wake to pebbles skittering down the cave tunnel, I stand, not disturbing any of my hatchlings or my eggs. The two humans who took away the cold creep in, being as quite as they can, bags on their backs making faint whirring noises, like the other boxes around the cave entrance. They glance around, pointing at crags and catches in the rock that are the size of the boxes. I step out of the ring of hatchlings, slinking into the shadows. They shift at the loss of my warmth, but otherwise do not notice my absence. The humans then begin to look around, pointing a smaller box at my hatchlings that makes clicking noises. They fail to notice my absence from the cave until they shine a light that reflects off of my eggs. They whisper hurriedly to one another, pointing and making wild gestures with their dull claws. Quickly, they turn around, looking at the other half for me, which gives me enough time to step back in to the circle of my hatchlings. I stand in a passive-aggressive stance, poising my tail, but standing normally. They turn around again, shining the light on my eggs once more, and it illuminates my barb, which is poised over my eggs and my hatchlings.

They take a step closer, and I lower my barb closer to my eggs, they take another step, and I lower it so it's almost touching my eggs, less than a talons width from them. They take quite a few steps back, and I raise my barb away from my eggs, resting it over my heart. They panic even more, scrambling to the entrance of the main cave. I give a toothy grin, then stab my barb into my heart.


	2. Chapter 2

**You can hate me now. I left another cliffhanger. :) R &R! Enjoy!**

Mother had taught me how powerful my poison was, even at a young age, by telling me to hit creatures with my tail. I took down a full grown buck by barely touching him. One time, father, during the times he was around, told me to hit him with my tail. I was terrified, not wanting to hurt him, but I did so anyways. He began to spasm, but he stung himself with his barb and it counteracted the poison. He taught me during those times, how to avoid hurting anyone, and told me that if I stung myself, it wouldn't poison me. He also told me that if mother ever laid anymore clutches, and they had barbs and stung each other, to use my poison to counteract it. I should have close to the same type of poison, and therefore be able to stop its progress. He later explained that the only reason my poison was effective on him was because when a new gene is introduced, it changes the poison.

I reflect on this as the humans stand on in shock, expecting something much more horrible to happen.

With blood pouring out of the hole to my heart, my hatchlings start and begin to run when either the smell or the blood gets to them. I carefully push my eggs, the bottoms covered in blood, away from me, to a higher spot in the cave. I push my terrified hatchlings around them, and I take an aggressive stance. I bellow all of my sorrow, anger, grief and pain at the humans, whipping my tail around.

As I get close to them, the blood begins to pool around their feet. After all, even if I can't poison myself, it doesn't mean that a hole in the heart cannot be fatal. The smell of the blood lapping at their feet sends them bolting out of the cave, leaving marks of dragon-blood behind. My eyes grasp at a comforting sight, and I look at mothers bones as my vision begins to go blurry. I kneel over, closing my eyes.

I remember father. I remember him playing with me, the cursed hatchling. When eggs are laid as a large clutch, and all but one egg dies, leaving one to live, will be viewed as cursed. My mother was shunned as a layer of cursed clutches. Father didn't shun her, though. He had no family to shun him, and he truly loved mother.

I remember the day of my hatching. I remember my sisters, my brothers, and how we chirped in the eggs. They slowly went silent, one by one, until it was only one brother and I left. I begged him to hatch; I didn't want to lose him too. So he forced himself to begin to hatch, and I did too, a breaking out of my egg before him. Oh, he tried, he had tried so hard. The first thing I saw was his egg. It was cracked, the shell clinging to the lining of the egg. He was still alive, for a short time. He was so pretty. His scales glittered like ice, he being a mix of blue and white and shades in between. He said I looked like a flame, a blue-hot flame. He knew he was dying, and he told me he would tell our siblings, he would tell them how pretty I looked. I had chirped desperately, begging him to stay, to live. I told him he looked like frost, like ice. As he left this world, I ripped open the remains of his egg. I licked him clean, begging him to fight. I couldn't bear to be alone. He smiled, but I still begged him to stay, to be my brother with me.

I don't remember exactly what happened when he finally died, but I remember what my other brother and sisters would've looked like. I should've had a total of 4 sisters and 2 brothers. My sisters were gems, a ruby, a emerald, a sapphire and a amethyst. They would've been so pretty. My brothers were vastly different, one of ice and one of molten gold and silver. They were beautiful, and none of my siblings would've had trouble finding a mate. None of them.

I can only remember breaking their eggs. Mother couldn't do anything, not with my poison, and even when father returned, I gave him a hard time too. Luckily, I hadn't know how to use my barb, so I hadn't hurt him.

I memorized my siblings, committing it to memory. They were all perfect, in their own ways. One thing we all had, barbs. We all had poison. We were all deadly, a perfect combination for survival.

And we were made for killing.

Chirps, pleading voices, singing. I can feel Death. He creeps at the hole to my heart, haunting me. It begins to fade, over time. I hear my hatchlings, and I hear the males. They don't want me to die. The hatchlings would kill each other in grief, as all hatchlings do when both parents or caretakers are dead. I doubt any females would remain, poison or not. I suppose I can hang on for them, and my eggs. I will cling to life.

I hear it all. I hear a voice like father. One of the males from far away sounds like father. Maybe father survived. The last time as I saw him was a week before the cold came. Maybe he escaped the cold. I hope he did.

My eyes open. My eggs have been wiped of most of my blood, and nestled in the crook of my stomach. My hatchlings are all over, but no more than two of their body lengths from me. The rubble from the boulder has been cleared from the cave, and the piles I knocked over between the opening and the main cavern has been replaced.

My heart throbs, and I look at it. I have bled quite a bit, a large area covered with flakes of dried crimson-rust blood. A layer of moss is hooked on the edges of my scales and cover the hole to my heart, absorbing the blood that sluggishly pumps out of the wound, also protecting it from most of the air. Along the edge of the cave, spread out or grouped together, lay every male I have seen, and many more. They seem to be grouped in their clutches, most no more than 3 to a clutch, but with other ages.

I can smell a scent very alike to father. It might be him. It is from the entrance, or that direction. I can shakily stand, trembling at every movement. I somehow still retain my grace, silent even as I tremble. I make it to the beginning of the slope up when a few of my hatchlings stir. They wake, and notice I am no longer there. They look around wildly, before one spots me. It is my male hatchling whose eye I took for his life. He doesn't do anything except nuzzle my shoulder, supporting me. The other hatchlings have gone back to sleep, but he stays with me. I continue to stumble up towards the entrance, determined to find the scent that smells like father. At the mouth to the cave, I see multiple dragons, all male, and all different ages. But the scent still comes from beyond them, although their scents smell strongly like father.

My hatchling continues to follow me as I climb out of the cave, looking for the scent that was so alike to the last time I smelt father. Once I've made it to the top of the entrance to the cave, I can see two dragons. One sleeps while the other stands guard.

"They won't sleep in the cave." My hatchling whispers. The scent becomes overpowering, and it smells exactly like father. The darkness keeps me from seeing details of the two dragons at the entrance, and the one standing guard wakes the other.

"Uncle, you should go sleep with my brothers. You don't have to push yourself this hard." He says, waking the other dragon. He shakes his head, standing and facing the emptiness beyond the cave, determined to remain. The dragon who woke him sighs, turning back to watching the darkness. I don't remember laying down, or falling asleep with my hatchling nestled with me.

I wake, chilled and my wound throbbing. I feel the back of another dragon behind me, he himself cold, but still attempting to keep me warm. I hear the dragon from last night, the one that didn't keep falling asleep, enter the cave, slipping behind me, and waking his uncle again.

"Uncle, you can't keep doing this. Let her heal. She doesn't know you." The older dragon refuses to move, and I slowly raise my head, looking at the two dragons in the light. I scramble backwards, waking my hatchling. The older dragon is father. He smiles gently at me, while the other dragon is upset at the older dragon, thinking he scared me.

"Father!" I cry, and the younger dragon jumps back suddenly. I nuzzle father's neck, and I see the scar left on his side from my barb, and his. I tear up, and soon tears are running down my face and onto father's scales. A trickle of moisture begins to run down my chest, and I see that I have begun to bleed again, steadily, even through the moss, creating a small puddle of blood. My hatchling begins to nudge me in the direction of the main cavern, and I reluctantly head that way. Father follows us down to the cave, and is about to stop following, but a pleading glance sent at him begs him to come, so he does. My sight begins to go blurry, and I start stumbling, which causes father to begin to support me. A short distance from the cave, I can hear fighting.

I blink, furiously trying to clear the blurriness in my eyes, and attempting to run. Father and my hatchling try to hold me back, but I break free, running and stumbling my way to the cave. I can hear father hurrying after me, along with my hatchling. The more I hurry, the more blood trickles out of the wound, soon turning into a steady trail of blood. I trip over a chip in the cave floor, sprawling onto my chest, ripping the moss off of my chest. The blood begins to rush out faster, now that the moss isn't covering the hole. The amount of blood soon pools as I scramble to my feet, even more dizzy and my sight even more blurry. I continue to stumble towards the main cavern, the blood I am losing creating a river that precedes me. The world spins, but I close my eyes and keep going, using my wingtips to guide me through the cave.

I can tell when I've reached the cave, because the fighting noises have stopped, and I can feel everyone staring at me. The blood sounds like a waterfall to me, and even with my eyes closed, the world spins. My knees buckle as father and my hatchling finally catch up to me. Father hauls me by the loose-ish skin and scales that hang on my tail, where my barb and scaled flesh meet. Every other dragon begins to growl at him, for touching their potential mate, but father roars back, louder than I would have thought of him,

"I'm sure a father can move his daughter!" The growls stop instantly, and knowing I have a a barb that can kill, the stares turn to his tail tip, where his barb is. The lumpy scar on his side from the poison also draws some attention. I sense another dragon approach, and unsure of who he is, I begin to attempt to whip him with my tail, but instead, I hit father. I hear him drop, and everyone hurriedly backs away from us as father scratches the top of where I hit, standing up and continuing to pull me. I can feel him shaking, and I slowly stand, my wings and tail, the barb folded back into my flesh, swing around to help me keep my balance. Blood continues to pour out of my wound, and after getting my bearings in the cave, keeping my eyes closed, I head in the direction where I know moss grows. I feel the moss, scraping it into a large ball, doing it as mother taught me, putting a certain rock on one side. I can still use fire in my near-dead state, and I heat my breath enough to melt one side together, the molten rocks binding it, leaving an absorbent side and a hardened side.

I hook the moss onto my scales around the wound. I then embed more of the rock onto the edges of the moss, and I breathe on it, melding it to my scales, and covering the wound entirely. My brain finally remembers that I've lost a lot of blood, and shuts me down, making me collapse, and making me sleep, or fall unconscious.

I can no longer feel Death. I am sure he hates me now, especially since I've found a way to seal the way he used to haunt me closed. I can tell that the wound is healing fast like this, but it pressurizes the blood that has collected in the wound. I open my eyes, and the feeling of father against my back comforting. I walk away from the ring of dragons, standing in a secluded hollow that only I know about. I breathe heated breath on the moss and rocks, the moss holding the molten stone in place, but it also lets the blood drain out of the wound. I slowly ease the temperature of my breath to its normal temperature, and letting the molten stone slowly solidify, sealing my wound again, this time without the pressurized blood. I return to the ring of dragons, laying down against father's back.

The next time I wake, I can tell that my wound is almost entirely healed, other than the scales being unable to grow while covered. I can tell that it's been days, possibly a few weeks, and I am starving. First, though, I have to remove the moss, to let my scales grow over the flesh. I hear other dragons moving around, and I climb to my feet, opening my eyes and heading to one of my hidden nooks. I hear at least six males begin to follow me, but I get around a corner that they can't see, and I head down the narrow, cramped passage, and about halfway, a medium sized cavern opens up. The cavern is just big enough for me to spread my wings from side to side, and just brush the edges with my wingtips.

I had found this place as a very young hatchling, and I soon found out that no one could find it twice, even if I showed them. I always believed some creature from mother's stories had made me a hidden place, just for me. I later grew out of that belief, recognizing the way it was hidden as father's handiwork. Father always had a knack at making things blend in, and I was the only one, including him, who could pick out his work, and where he hid things. He had forgotten about this one, so I made it my place.

I heat my breath up and melt the molten rock off of my scales, pulling the moss away. I scamper down the remainder of the passage, and I ram a boulder out of the way of the entrance. I walk out into the cold, breathing deeply. I toss the moss down the mountain, and I walk out a few steps. I feel confident enough to hunt, and I beat my wings, experimenting with my strength before I take off. I am much lighter than I normally am, and I take off, jumping and catching a updraft to help me along. I haven't flown since I was caught in the cold. The forest I would hunt in still remains, covered in white. I switch between drafts, saving my strength for flying back. Unlike other dragons, I do not fly and swoop while hunting.

I can, but I prefer to hunt on the ground, even though my colouring is better for the sky. So I land, the white being cold but not making much noise. I listen for prey, and I hear a herd of caribou to the right. I begin to stalk them, finding some of them in a valley. They're trapped, and the rest of the herd is a little while away. The caribou have one logical exit, and that is where they will head at a startling noise. I shove a pile of the white down the valley, and they stampede for the exit I expected them to run. I hurry over there, killing almost all of the herd as they run. I leave the calves, and a few females to escape. I killed many, enough for me and most of my hatchlings. I eat until my stomach is full, already feeling better with food in my stomach. Out of the 26 caribou, I've eaten 7 caribou, without the bones and fur. That leaves 19 caribou for my hatchlings. Normally, I would be able to carry three quarters back in one trip, but because of my wound, I won't take the chance. I pick up what I can't take back and I put them at the top of trees, and I take six back in my claws. I drop them at the main entrance, and the noise brings males, and they see me fly off before they take the caribou into the cave. I do this three times, and when I drop the last few, I keep one and I wing around to my hidden passage. I push the boulder across the entrance, and I go to my cavern.

I eat the caribou, leaving nothing but traces of blood, bones, and fur. I stretch my wings once before I fold them to my back, and I squeeze through the passage, back into the main passage. I head down towards the main cavern, and I smell the caribou I killed in there, dragons eating them. I know that I killed too few for my hatchlings, and I pause, debating on whether or not to go kill more, and I begin to run, decide to hunt more. I send pebbles flying as I turn, and males step art up the passage. I use the main entrance this time, taking a running start as I jump into the air. My wings ache slightly, but I catch a updraft quickly, flying high. The males jump out, looking for me, and they catch a glimpse of me as I dive down into the forest again.

The males are noisy, when on the ground. I have begun to stalk the caribou, and I find most of the herd under the close grown trees. They've found refuge from most of the dragons, but also set their own death trap, in a clearing. As they stand, they are unaware that I stand not far from them. I rush them, killing at least 100 before they find a path that they can escape at, since I block the main one they've been using. I am careful not to kill the calves, and mainly target the adult males, and the adult females, mainly the ones without calves. The males finally catch up to me, obviously not used to walking around, but better suited to flying, and they see my kills in the clearing, and they see me carrying them up to the trees.

When I have all but a few in the trees, I take eight this time, and I wing my way to the cave, using the drafts to save my energy. I've made two trips in the time it's taken the males to make one, and I slowly increase my load, finding that my wound, mostly healed other than scales, hasn't impacted me. On the third trip, I take my average of 15 caribou, and using the drafts, it doesn't affect my speed or the strain on my wings. Compared to me, the males are horrible fliers, and terribly slow as well. I wonder how they learned to fly. As I put my final load of caribou down, I leap into the air and I fly high. I go until I feel like my lungs will burst.

Then I dive.


	3. POLL!

A poll is up on my profile, and it closes in two-ish hours. Vote for which story y'all want updated in less than 7 days. Basically all of my stories have half-finished chapters, and I want to know the majority's choice, so VOTE NOW!

-The Age Of Awesomeness


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